NextGen Stars
AACR Annual Meeting 2023 NextGen Stars Program
The NextGen Stars program provides an exciting opportunity to increase the visibility of early-career scientists at the AACR Annual Meeting and to support their professional development and advancement.
cONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2023 nEXTgEN sTARS!
Timour Baslan, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York
Ordered and selective patterns of cancer genome evolution revealed by lineage tracing of sporadic p53 loss
Major Symposium SY28
New Insights into Cancer Initiation, Progression, and Therapy through Big Data Resources
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Doratha A. Byrd, MPH, PhD
Assistant Member
Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida
A biobank of Fecal Immunochemical Tests (FIT) for gut microbiome measurement: A paradigm for studying the microbiome and cancer
Major Symposium SY22
Microbiome and Cancer Immunotherapy
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Katelyn T. Byrne, PhD
Assistant Professor of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology
Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon
Agonistic anti-CD40 converts regulatory T cells in to Type 1 effector cells within the tumor microenvironment
Major Symposium SY12
Monday, April 17, 2023
Michael Chiorazzi, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine (Medical Oncology)
Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut
Autologous humanized PDX modeling for immuno-oncology recapitulates the human tumor microenvironment
Major Symposium SY09
Cancer Ecosystem and the Microenvironment
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Courtney L. Jones, PhD
Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre; Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Targeting polyamine metabolism in acute myeloid leukemia stem cells
Major Symposium SY03
Stress, Stemness, and Drug Resistance
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Brittany D. Lord, PhD, MPH
Cancer Prevention Fellow, Division of Cancer Prevention
National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
The impact of neighborhood deprivation on DNA methylation in breast cancer from a diverse cohort
Advances in Organ Site Research AOS08
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Alvin P. Makohon-Moore, PhD
Assistant Member
Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery and Innovation, Nutley, New Hampshire
Transcriptional and metabolic dynamics of cancer cells under nutrient deprivation
Major Symposium SY07
Metabolic Influence on the Cancer Cell State
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Rachel N. Martini, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York
Multiomics in disparities research: Identifying African ancestry-specific mechanisms in the triple negative breast cancer tumor microenvironment
Advances in the Science of Cancer Disparities ASD01
The Biology Driving Cancer Disparities
Monday, April 17, 2023
Chemtai Mungo, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Feasibility of topical self-administered therapies to improve cervical precancer treatment outcomes among women living with HIV in low-and middle-income countries
Major Symposium SY36
Global Cancer Burden: Challenges and Opportunities for Innovation
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Jason R. Pitarresi, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts
Altered calcium signaling in cancer: PTHrP-KRAS collateral amplification governs pancreatic cancer metastasis, cachexia, and immunosuppression
Major Symposium SY20
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Alvaro Quintanal-Villalonga, PhD
Assistant Attending Biologist and Codirector, Rudin Lab
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York
Multi-omic approaches to study the role of plasticity in therapy resistance and metastasis in lung cancer
Advances in Diagnostics and Therapeutics ADT06
Multiomics in Diagnosis and Care Management
Monday, April 17, 2023
Megan K. Ruhland, PhD
Assistant Professor of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology, and Dermatology
Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon
Dendritic cell intrinsic androgen receptor signaling reduces dendritic cell function and anti-tumor immunity
Major Symposium SY15
Clinical Strategies for Myeloid Cell Modulation in Cancer
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Anastasia N. Tikhonova, PhD
Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre; Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Delineating the developmental hierarchy and immune microenvironment of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Advances in Organ Site Research AOS05
Advances in Leukemia Research and Treatment
Monday, April 17, 2023
Duo Xu, PhD
Research Associate
Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York
Chromatin profiles classify castration-resistant prostate cancers suggesting therapeutic targets
Advances in Organ Site Research AOS06
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
View the abstracts of the NextGen Stars’ presentations from the AACR Annual Meeting 2022:
Mustapha Abubakar, MD, PhD
Research Fellow, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics
National Cancer Institute, Rockville, Maryland
Double-edged “soil”: Stromal microenvironment in breast cancer
Major Symposium SY25
Metabolic and Nutritional Regulation of Cancer and Immunity
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Ana Luisa Correia, PhD
Principal Investigator, Cancer Dormancy and Immunity Lab
Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
Revisiting NK cell immunity to prevent metastasis
Major Symposium SY31
Sunday, April 10, 2022
Isra Elhussin, MBBS, MSc, PhD candidate
Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama
Prostate cancer: Multi-omics comparison between European, African American, and Native African men with prostate cancer
Advances in Organ Site Research AOS08
The Next Generation of Targets for Prostate Cancer
Monday, April 11, 2022
Ekrem Emrah Er, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology and Biophysics
University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Elevated cellular stiffness sensitizes metastatic cells to destruction by mechanosurveillance: The mechanical mode of immune surveillance
Major Symposium SY23
Extracellular Matrix Remodeling in Cancer
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Ariella Hanker, PhD
Assistant Professor, Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas
It takes two: Cooperating oncogenic mutations in the HER2/HER3 pathway
Advances in Organ Site Research AOS02
Triple Negative Breast Cancer: Molecular Insights and Treatment Advances
Monday, April 11, 2022
Daniel Herranz, PharmD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pharmacology
Rutgers Cancer Institute, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Identification of SIRT1 as a novel therapeutic target in T-ALL
Major Symposium SY04
Epigenetic Alterations as Cancer Therapeutic Targets
Monday, April 11, 2022
Sarah J. Hill, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Medical Oncology/Molecular and Cellular Oncology
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
Dissecting mechanisms of NK cell dysfunction and re-engagement in high grade serous ovarian cancer
Advances in Organ Site Research AOS10
Advances in Ovarian Cancer Screening and Treatment
Monday, April 11, 2022
William L. Hwang, MD, PhD
Radiation Oncologist and Research Fellow
Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center/Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
Multicellular spatial community featuring a novel neuronal-like malignant phenotype is enriched in pancreatic cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy
Major Symposium SY12
Monday, April 11, 2022
Anand G. Patel, MD, PhD
Instructor, Department of Oncology
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee
The myogenesis program drives clonal selection and drug resistance in pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma
Advances in Organ Site Research AOS09
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Arja Ray, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Pathology
University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California
Next-generation macrophage and T cell activation reporters to define functional immune states in solid tumors
Major Symposium SY19
Myeloid Cell Control of Therapeutic Antitumor Immunity
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Marcus Ruscetti, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Cell and Cancer Biology
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts
Modulating cellular senescence to reinstate natural killer cell immunity for pancreatic cancer immunotherapy
Major Symposium SY24
Aging and the Tumor Microenvironment’s Impact on Minimal Residual Disease and Cancer Recurrence
Wednesday, April 13, 2022
Ayesha Shafi, PhD
Assistant Professor, Center for Prostate Disease Research
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences/The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland
The circadian cryptochrome, CRY1, is a pro-tumorigenic factor that rhythmically modulates DNA repair
Presidential Select Symposium SY33
Monday, April 11, 2022
Katherine Tossas, PhD, MS
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Behavior & Policy
Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia
The vaginal microbiome may operate differently by race to precipitate the risk of pre-cervical cancer
Advances in Population Sciences APS01
Where You Live Matters: From Biological to Social Determinants of Cancer Outcomes
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Derek Wainwright, PhD
Assistant Professor, Departments of Neurological Surgery, Medicine, and Immunology
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois
IDO: Going beyond enzyme activity to eradicate glioblastoma
Advances in Organ Site Research AOS13
Advances in Glioblastoma Cancer Research and Cancer Care
Monday, April 11, 2022